GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15 



OUR 

 HOMES, 



BY A.I. ROOT. 



Fear not them which kill the bodj', but are not able 

 to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to 

 destroy both soul and body in hell.— Matt. 10:28. 



A father was coming- home from his work 

 one evening. I rather think his home was 

 a new one, for both himself and his chil- 

 dren seemed a little unfamiliar with the 

 surrounding's. As he came in sight of this 

 home his boy Johnnie started out on a run 

 through the tall grass crosslots to meet 

 him. The father smiled when he saw his 

 boy so anxious to greet him on his return; 

 and when the boy tumbled down in the 

 deep grass he did not think very much 

 about it. He supposed the boy had stubbed 

 his toe or got his foot entangled in the 

 grass, and would soon be up again. John- 

 nie, however, did not get up. The father, 

 reflecting a little, remembered an old un- 

 used well there in that tangled mass of 

 grass and weeds. As the memory of this 

 well came to his mind he hurried up, you 

 may be sure; and, sure enough, the boy 

 had stumbled into that old well. But I am 

 happy to tell you the well was not very 

 deep, and there was only a little water in 

 it. Johnnie had recovered himself enough 

 to get on his feet, and with his face be- 

 spattered with mud and tears he reached 

 up his hands and said: "O papal why 

 didn't j'ou hurry up?"* 



Now, friends, let us consider, if you 

 please, whose fault it was that Johnnie fell 

 into that old well, soiled his clothes, and 

 made his poor mother a lot of hard work in 

 getting him clean again, even if he was so 

 fortunate as to sustain no injury. I think 

 you will all agree with me when I say that 

 Johnnie himself was a good deal to blame. 

 Anybody, even a child, should be careful 

 about running headlong in a place where he 

 is not perfectly acqtiainted with the locali- 

 ty and surroundings, especially where it 

 is grown up with grass and weeds. Of 

 course, parents often say, "Let the chil- 

 dren tear around and learn these hard 

 necessary lessons by experience, even if 

 the experience be somewhat bitter at 

 times." Such talk will do very well; but, 

 if I am not mistaken, Johnnie's father 

 blamed himself, and perhaps quite vehe- 

 mently. The father was greatly to blame 

 for not making himself acquainted with the 

 dooryard and its surroundings where he 

 chose to locate his wife and children. 

 Just the minute he discovered, or had an 

 inkling that there was an old well where 

 children might stumble, he should have cov- 

 ered it up, put a fence around it, or at 

 least have cut away the weeds and grass 

 with the scythe so that every one could see 

 at a glance the danger that lay in that di- 



*l think I found the above incident in a recent is- 

 sue of the Sunday School Times. The morals which I 

 draw further on, however, are my own. 



rection. The father who permits a well or 

 cistern to remain uncovered should be re- 

 monstrated with. If he does not at once 

 heed the remonstrance he should be coni- 

 pelled dy law to take care of such danger- 

 ous places where children or other people 

 might pass in the dark. 



Not only is the father to blame, but the 

 mother also. If she pleads in extenuation 

 that she did not know any thing about the 

 well, and never heard of it, this should not 

 be a suflicient excuse. It is every mother's 

 business to look carefully over the sur- 

 roundings; and she should go as far from 

 her home as any of her children are likely 

 to wander. She should know by personal 

 inspection whether or not there are open 

 wells or cisterns where they may not only 

 sustain serious injury, but perhaps lose 

 their lives. Very likely many of you can 

 remember where children in your own local- 

 ity have lost their lives through just such 

 carelessness. 



And not only the mother, but the older 

 brothers and sisters, if there are any, 

 should be responsible. Yes, and the neigh- 

 bors, if they know of such places, should 

 be severely censured if they have permitted 

 them to go uncared for. The town or city 

 should have an ordinance making it a mis- 

 demeanor to endanger life in this way. 

 And finally the whole State, or the United 

 States, should, if it has not been done al- 

 ready, enact stringent laws, and punish 

 the offenders by a severe penalty for sloven- 

 ly negligence in the matter of which I have 

 been speaking. 



At a recent Sunday-school convention in 

 Los Angeles, Cal., Dr. Miller was called 

 on to speak. He said a boy here in this 

 land is of more value than any thing else 

 in the world. I think he quickly corrected 

 himself by saying that a girl in this pres- 

 ent age is worth almost as much as a boy, 

 and possibly some people would think a 

 little more. But I think you will all agree, 

 that the boys and girls, say about the age 

 Johnnie was when he fell into that old well, 

 are the most valuable things the United 

 States or the whole wide world., for that 

 matter, has to look after and care for. We 

 may thank God for the just and reasonable 

 laws that we have for grown-up people; 

 and I believe the tendency in recent times 

 is to consider the health and best welfare 

 of our boys and girls of fully as much (if 

 not more) value as we do the lives and wel- 

 fare of our grown-up people. Men and 

 women can take care of themselves, in a 

 measure, in a way that children can not. 

 May God help us, not only to feel but to 

 shoulder our responsibilities as American 

 citizens. 



Now, friends, I am not sure you will all 

 agree with me, at once, when I say that, 

 bad as it is for boys or girls to fall into an 

 old well and lose their lives, there are 

 worse things that can happen to our chil- 

 dren than even this. When we hear of 

 somebody who has lost his life by stum- 

 bling into a well, we raise our hands in 



